Friday, March 27, 2015

On february 10th, around 11:40 am, Ramón Fernández Francés, Kim Clark, and Natalia Decastro were birding in Bocas del Toro, along the road close to the continental divide. We first heard and then saw [this odd raptor]. We got some pictures, perhaps not the best, but good enough to see that it is a subadult. [...]

[Thinking that this could be a Solitary Eagle, we forwarded the photo to expert Bill Clark, who had this to say:

Many thanks for forwarding this to me.But, unfortunately, this is a Common Black Hawk in transition from juvenile to adult plumage. No immature Solitary Eagle would show tail bands like this and a mix of adult and juvenile remiges. The eagle takes three years of so to get adult plumage.I attach a copy of our Birding article that discusses in detail how to identify a Solitary Eagle in the field.Cheers, Bill